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Mites! Help!

SilverPages

SilverPages

Horticulture-Herpatology
Hey,

So almost a month ago, we purchased two Columbian Boas from a guy. When we brought them home, however, we discovered they had mites. We immediate (that night) started treatment on them, soaking them every night for a full week, using dish soap every three days, and now we're spraying them every three days. So far, so good, the mites have slowly disappeared. We've got them quarantined in 20gal tanks with screen lids, and only paper towels on the bottom that we switch out at least every other day.

The other day, we found mites on our Dumeril's Boas. We were bummed, but honestly weren't surprised. See, we had housed the Colombians in that terrarium for an hour while we went and bought mite spray. After we took the Colombians out, we DID bleach the terrarium and kept it empty for a day or so before we put the Dumeril's in there. But low and behold, now they have mites.

Well, we thought we had the problem contained, but when I went to check on my three newest babies (the 2 snows and the anery, acquired a week ago), I found small mites on all three of them. Nothing in their tank has ever touched any of the boas, and they actually haven't been handled since we put them in there a week ago. The Columbian's tanks are a good 5 feet away, on a separate table. The Dumeril's terrarium IS right next to it, but on the floor.

As far as we know, our Python (living above the Dumeril's), our amel (living between the Columbian's), and my two other corns (living below the Colombians) are still mite-free.

Two questions.
1) How in the world did the mites get to their tank?
2) How do we do a better job of getting rid of the mites?

Oh, we do have two kittens that roam the house, but they keep away from the snakes for the most part. They've been snapped at twice and avoid them as far as we know.

ANY help would be appreciated, even if it's to direct me to another site/thread/forum/whatever.

Thanks in advance!
 
SilverPages said:
Hey,

So almost a month ago, we purchased two Columbian Boas from a guy. When we brought them home, however, we discovered they had mites. We immediate (that night) started treatment on them, soaking them every night for a full week, using dish soap every three days, and now we're spraying them every three days. So far, so good, the mites have slowly disappeared. We've got them quarantined in 20gal tanks with screen lids, and only paper towels on the bottom that we switch out at least every other day.

The other day, we found mites on our Dumeril's Boas. We were bummed, but honestly weren't surprised. See, we had housed the Colombians in that terrarium for an hour while we went and bought mite spray. After we took the Colombians out, we DID bleach the terrarium and kept it empty for a day or so before we put the Dumeril's in there. But low and behold, now they have mites.

Well, we thought we had the problem contained, but when I went to check on my three newest babies (the 2 snows and the anery, acquired a week ago), I found small mites on all three of them. Nothing in their tank has ever touched any of the boas, and they actually haven't been handled since we put them in there a week ago. The Columbian's tanks are a good 5 feet away, on a separate table. The Dumeril's terrarium IS right next to it, but on the floor.

As far as we know, our Python (living above the Dumeril's), our amel (living between the Columbian's), and my two other corns (living below the Colombians) are still mite-free.

Two questions.
1) How in the world did the mites get to their tank?
2) How do we do a better job of getting rid of the mites?

Oh, we do have two kittens that roam the house, but they keep away from the snakes for the most part. They've been snapped at twice and avoid them as far as we know.

ANY help would be appreciated, even if it's to direct me to another site/thread/forum/whatever.

Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...

You will have to continue what you are doing. Check every cage daily and try to clean out each as much as possible
 
I wish I could help. Knock on wood I have never had a mite problem but I would not plan on bringing anymore animals into the house until it is for sure gone.
 
You can get a commercial made reptile mite rid spray. Get it and use it as prescribed on the label. Keep the animals quarantined and keep up the vidual. I know they are a pain but sounds like you are really trying to get rid of em. Good luck with it all.
 
yea, no more new ones. no money, anyways. :p

yea, we have a commercial spray, but its a cheap one. might go buy a more expensive one. or take a couple into the vet... we've decided that the worst ones are Duce and Zues. so...

im hoping I caught it on the corns early enough, there were no adults on them.

any idea how to sanitize stone? 2 of the hides are stone.

the wooden hides can just go in the oven, right? is once enough, or should we do it a few times?
 
good news. we found the source of the mites in the new corn's cage. the plastic plant we put in there we forgot that we had put it in the columbian's cage before we discovered the mites. stupid mistake, but hopefully we caught it in time.

we sanitized all the cages today, regardless of if they had mites or not. the wooden terrarium is empty, we'll be bleaching it every week for a while to make sure no eggs turn into adults. all the wood was baked, all the stone is soaking.

thanks for all your support!
 
I would get some "Provent A Mite" or "RID Home Lice, Bedbug & Dust Mite Spray" (Wal-mart has it) and use it in all my cages to kill all the mites.

Love the Fatman
 
It's been 2 months since we started treatment, and the mites have now spread to every single snake. obviously what we're doing isn't working. any more advice?
 
sounds like the whole house really needs a break down ): Carpet cleaner, something that can take out fleas and stuff. Sounds like they might be in any and everything that has space for them to hide. That really sucks though D: I wish you the best of luck! Keeping the snakes in a room that has been completely cleaned out and then keeping the kittens out so the mites have no place to hide is my only thought. It sounds like it might just be an on going battle :/ good luck! let us know how it goes
 
Oh man I'm really sorry to read this! I, thankfully, do not have any experience with mites although I have dealt with stray kittens infested with fleas. I'm wondering if Diatomaceous Earth on the carpet and floors would kill them naturally the same way it does fleas. It would be worth looking into, as it's natural and pretty safe and can be vacuumed up fairly easily.
 
Look at their cages. Mites do have breeding grounds of course, so I would check each hide, especially wooden ones.Perhaps move your collection to different cages for now?
 
You know, that's a really good point. I've been told by some iguana people (I've had an iguana cage building project in the works for like 6 months now) to not use wood for their enclosure because it's almost a sure fire way to get mites. And they were talking treated wood for the frame, not just wood sticks and branches to climb on.
 
SilverPages said:
It's been 2 months since we started treatment, and the mites have now spread to every single snake. obviously what we're doing isn't working. any more advice?
Click to expand...

We need to know what you are doing. You said mite spray but not what kind of mite spray. You are doing a total cleaning every week right.

You can use kitten flea powder. Put a light sprinkle on the bottom of the cages then the new substrate.

Fatman
 
We are lucky enough to have them in a wood floor room. however, there is TONS of fabric in shelving units in the room. we're hoping to either get the fabric out of there, or move the snakes. but neither of those can be done any time soon.
 
I would suggest checking the yahoo groups for some mite related stuff and remedies. I swore there were bird mites in my apartment a few years back terrorizing me, the dogs and cats although never did find anything. There's tons of info out there about mites though. Just be warned, some of the people in those groups are really over the top.
 
All you got to do is spray this stuff on the fabric "RID Home Lice, Bedbug & Dust Mite Spray" it is made to be used on fabric.

Fatman
 
Use PAM (prevent a mite) or nix. Take everything out of the cage and treat it with the spray, put paper towels down as substrate, and spray them lightly, wait an hr then you can add the water, snake and 1-2 hides.

spray additional paper towels, store in tupperware and when you change the paper towel, use the pre-treated one.

Wood should be soaked then baked, and rocks can be soaked in bleach (rinse like you have OCD) or boiled to kill mites. They can then be treated with the pam or nix, leave them aside and don't add to enclosure until you've won the battle.
 
google nix spray for mites and a solution will come up i beliece its 1 part nix 60 parts water mix the 2 in a spray bottle and spray everytbing the walls,floors, cages snakes take water bowls out it is safe on the snakes as long as you mix the water and nix cream properlly small snakes can be more suseptable to the spray.

good luck

ps mites can move 6ft in a hour
 
Search homemade mite remedy on here and you will find the thread on nix. I've been there done that with mites and this worked for me in the first treatment! In your situation though it will definitely take longer. Trust me on this. I will try to find the thread for you.
 
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